PARWANA

Stars:Navin Nischol,Yogita Bali,Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan
Genre:Love story/Mystery
Year: 1971
This little known Big B movie features his first role as a villian.He did not play a villian for another 31years.Aankhen released in 2002 was his second movie as a villian.Since then he has played the bad guy in half a dozen movies.No one really knew Amitabh Bachchan back in 1971.He was only of the new batch of actors to enter the movies at that time and he was not considered as a future talent.Vinod Khanna,Shatrughan Sinha,Navin Nischol,Anil Dhawan(brother of famous director David Dhawan),Vijay Arora and some 4-5 other actors entered Bollywood at the same time.It is hard to imagine now but Nischol,Arora and Dhawan were being touted as future stars wheras Khanna,Sinha and Big B were regarded as least likely to succeed.Infact Big B was labeled a failed actor at that time.How wrong were they...
Now about the movie.The movie is basically a love triangle cum thriller.Kumar Sen(Bachchan) is a painter and sculptor whose is in love with his childhood friend Asha(Bali) but he is too shy to express his feelings to her.She lives with her uncle Ashok Varma(Om Prakash).On a vacation trip she falls in lovce with Rajeshwar(Navin Nischol).On her return she first shares this news with her friend Kumar.Kumar is heartbroken and pours her heart to Asha.Asha is shocked but tells him that nothing can be done now but she still thinks of him as one of her best friend.When Rajeshwar visits Mumbai,Sen is engulfed with jealousy.He goes to meet Asha's uncle to remind him of the promise he has made to Sen to hand Asha's hand to him.But the uncle says that he never promised anything and tells Sen to forget about Asha.Sen leaves the place furious.
The next day the uncle's dead body is found and from that point the movie turns into a mystery movie.Who really is the killer forms the second half of the story.Although Rajeshwar is arrested for the murder we soon find out that Sen is the real killer.What forms the second part of the movie is to how Sen plans the murder and then tries to cover his tracks.
Shatrughan Sinha makes a guest appearance as a public prosecutor.
This is a Big B movie all the way.Although he is the villian,he is the main character of the movie.His performance is chilling albeit a bit rough around the edges.The rest of the cast ably do their parts.A very young Vikram Ghokhale makes an appearance as a police inspector.He is the guy who played the Police commisioner opposite Big B in the cult movie Agneepath,released 19 years after Parwana.
It is not the best movie you will ever see but its a decent timepass movie.
Rating:5/10 

GUDDI

Stars:Dharmendra,Jaya Bachchan and Utpal Dutt
Genre:Drama
Year:1971
The film marked the movie debut of Jaya Bachchan.She plays Kusum, a school girl crazy about movies and madly in love with filmstar Dharmendra.Kusum lives with her dad(A.k Hangal),elder brother Vijay Kishore and Bhahbi Sumita Sanyal.Her family members know about her craze for movies but they don't know anything about her crush on Dharmendra(he playts himself in the movie).Her cousin Navin(Sumit Bhanja) is interested in her but cannot express his feelings for her.He comes to visit them and tries to spend time with Guddi but she only talks about movies.During her vacations she comes to Mumbai to stay with her uncle Professor Gupta(Utpal Dutt in a delightful role).Mr Gupta and her bhabhi talk about marrying Kusum to Navin.It is then that she tells Navin that she cannot marry him as she is in love with Dharmendra.Navin tells this to Prof Gupta who comes up with a plan to get rid of Kusum's craze for movies.He uses his connections and meets Dharmendra in person.He tells him the entire story and asks for his help.Dharmendra is reluctant at first but finally agrees to help the Prof.They arrange for Kusum to come to the studio to watch the shootings.Kusum is over the moon at first and is very excited to meet Dharmendra and watch the shootings also.But as she watches more and more shootings she begins to realise how fake ,sad and empty the film world is.Her thinking begins to change.She begins to develop feelings for Navin.This is exactly what Prof.Gupta and Dharmendra had planned in the first place.The movie ends with a happy note when Kusum finally expresses her love for Navin.
The movie is directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.His films always carried some message and this one deals with an issue which is still very come that is developing crushes on filmstars.But he also tries to get across the point that behind all the glitter of cinema there is a lot of pain and sorrow.Jaya Bachchan in her debut is superb.She captures the innocence of a star struck girl perfectly.The support players including the late Bengali actor Samir Bhanja does terrific jobs with their roles.But the movie really belongs to Dharmendra and Utpal Dutt who play the matchmakers in the movie.The movie also includes cameos by topstars of the era.Infact they appear in shots from films that were really being made at the the time and subsequently came out during that time.Amitabh Bachchan,Dilip Kumar,Vinod Khanna,Rajesh Khanna and many other prominent stars make appearances.The story,screenplay and dialogues by Hrishida,Gulzar sahib and DN Mujherjee are superb.The songs are bit forgetable but all in all it is top notch entertainment.
Rating:6/10

ANITA

Stars:Manoj Kumar,Sadhana and I.S Johar
Genre:Mystery/Suspense
Year:1967
Anita is the Bollywood version of the classic Hollywood movie Laura.This was Manoj Kumar and Sadhana's second mystery movie.The first one was Woh Kaun Thi?,which was remade in 1977 as Ab Kya Hoga with Shatrughan Sinha and Neetu Singh(now Neetu Kapoor) in lead roles.Both movies were directed by Raj Khosla who also made Mera Saaya(1966) which was another mystery movie also starring Sadhana.All three were hits.Manoj Kumar,during the 60's worked in a series of successful mystery movies.Apart from Woh Kaun Thi?and Anita,he also had success with Gumnaam(1965) and Sajan(1969).Since this is a mystery movie i will not delve into much detail.I will just focus on the basic outline of the plot.
The movie starts with the disappearance of Anita(Sadhana).No one knows where she has vanished.Her
 father(Sajjan),her boyfriend Neeraj(Manoj Kumar) and all her friends are worried about her.We are told through flashbacks that Neeraj and Anita were in love and planned to marry.But her father opposed the marriage insisting instead to marry her to a business tycoon Anil Sharma(Kishen Mehta).Its at this point that Anita disppears.A while later it is found that Anita committed suicide.Neeraj doesn't believe this and starts 'seeing' her everywhere.The only problem is that no one else sees her.Neeraj's friends,worried that he might be losing his sanity persuade him to take a vacation.On vacation he again sees her in the guise of a jogan(holy lady).But the jogan tells him that her name is Maya.But thn she too disappears.When Neeraj tries to find her he is shocked to find out that Maya jogan died 20 years ago.By now,Neeraj also begins to question his sanity.But the sightings do not end.They continue.Desperate,Neeraj hires detectives to find out the truth.
Neeraj and the detectives find out the truth in the end but like i mentioned earlier in the review that i don't want to give away the main twists of the plots,this being a mystery movie.
The movie is a terrific,if somewhat dated entertainer.Like he did in Woh Kaun Thi?,Raj Khosla creates a mysterious and foggy atmosphere.At times some scenes become contrived and some what labored but on the whole the movie is solid enterainment.One more problem with the movie(which i guess is the case with all mystery suspense movies) is that there is no re-watch value.Once you know the main mystery it becomes a tad boring to watch the movie  again.The songs ae good and so are the dialogues.The screenplay is also solid.As for the performances,Manoj Kumar in the central role gives a fantastic performance.Sadhana is uneven,she is good in some parts and not so good in others.Kishen Mehta as always is boring but the rest of the support actors are good in their bits.If you are a Bollywood mystery movie bluff then definitely watch out.Even if you are not a fan of mystery movies iwould highly recommed this movie.
Rating:7/10

BAWARCHI

Stars: Rajesh Khanna,Jaya Bachchan and Asrani
Year:1972
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Hrishikesh Mukherjee was the greatest bollywood director of all time.This is my presonal opinion.His films were very different from the usual bollywood fares.They had a soft,laid back and comfortable feel to them.His films varied from serious dramas like Anand and Abhimaan to light comedies like Chupke Chupke,Golmaal and Rang Birangi.The thing i like about his movies is that no matter how many times i watch his movies i nevetr seem to get bored.He worked with all the top stars of the time.Most of his movies were with Dharamendra,Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.This is one of his best.For the second time Rajesh Khanna plays a single hero in this movie.It means that there is no romantic lead in the movie.
The movie centers around the Sharma family.It is headed by Dadaji.He has two married sons,Ramnath(A.KHangal) the elder son and Kashi(Kalinath Banerjee).They are married to sisters,Seeta(Durga Khote) to elder one and the younger sister Shobha(Usha Kiran) to the younger one.Both have a younger unmarried brother,Vishwanath(Asrani) who is a music film composer.Ramnath and Seeta have a spoilt young daughter and Kashi and Shobha have  a little son.They had a sister who died in an accident leaving their orphaned daughter Krishna(Jaya Bachchan) to live with the.
Them always fights with eachother over little things.There is disharmony in the house and it is very sad place to live.No servant stays there for more than a couple of days because they get tired of the fighting.The Sharmas decide to look for a new cook(Bawarchi).One morning a Bawarchi walks upto their house.His name is Raghu(Rajesh Khanna) and with his friendly nature convinces the family to hire him.Raghu changes their lives forever.He teaches them the values and benefits of happiness and sharing that happiness amongst each other.He teaches a valuable lesson to each family member in a different way.
In the end when he thinks his job is done he leaves.It is then found out that he is a very educated man and after getting tired with his style of living,sets out to find the true meaning of life.He finds that meaning in making others happy.There is a twist at the end which i would not give away in this review.But this is a beautiful clean family movie which carries an important message for everyone.The performances of the entire cast are superb.But you would expect this from a Hrishida movie.He had the ability to bring out the best from his actors.I highly recommend this movie.
Rating:8.5/10